I am an articling student at an accounting firm in Victoria. I have a modest salary that lets me pay the mortgage on my condo and living expenses while saving about $500 per month. What sort of financial position would a person Need to be in to make use out of a rein membership? I believe that I could learn a lot by joining, but I don't think my financial position is good enough to really put the knowledge to use.
I started with a bit of money and a good income and several rental properties already, but many people join with nothing but contacts.
If you are confident and charismatic and you know people that have acces to money, then you can start investing in real estate now. And REIN could be an excellent place to help you become a "real estate expert" so that you can attract money to buy properties.
Of course, there are also many people that join REIN and never take action, which would not be prudent on a modest salary.
Welcome to the forum and thank you for the great question! As Sherilynn mentioned, having a network of contacts that have access to capital is a great way to get started even if you think your personal savings might not be sufficient. One of the biggest benefits of being a REIN member is the networking opportunities at our monthly workshops, and many members have purchased multiple properties by raising other people's money (joint ventures).
March and April are an incredible time to be considering REIN membership as our brand new REIN Mastery program kicks off in Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto in March and in Vancouver in April. This program is a 6 session supplemental course for members that will help hone real estate investor behaviour and give you the knowledge and confidence to take your businesses to the next level.
And if you have any other questions, I'd be happy to answer them here or on the phone if you'd like to call our office - 1-888-824-7346. I'll finish by saying the best resource for reasons WHY becoming a REIN member is beneficial is definitely our members - ask them and they'll tell you. Happy investing!
You should join before you envision buying a property, say a year before. A property can be bought for as low as $80,000 with $20,000 cash in some markets, or single family homes from $200,000 with $40,000 down.
My suggestion is join when you know you are serious about learning how to successfully invest in real estate. That may be 5 years before you buy anything, or it may be 5 years after. Either way, if you want to learn from others, this is one incredible place to do it.
Probably the most important thing you can do right now is keep saving that $500/month. Then, when you're finished articling (and your salary goes up) you'll have a higher income for qualifying purposes and a nest egg for down payment purposes. As your salary goes up, instead of increasing your lifestyle increase your savings. One you're at 10-15% of an estimated purchase price, you can join and learn what you need to know while you're saving the last bit.
Wow, that's great to have so much feedback; thank you everyone. I've been reading Don's book and learning about how to invest and what to look for in the way of criteria that make up a location with growth potential. From the information that I've gathered, my goal for my first real estate investment is to purchase a 1 or 2 bedroom condo in Maple Ridge or Surrey that fits the ACRE system. I am about a year away from saving enough to cover a 20% down payment and closing costs. I think I'll place my efforts into saving up quickly and then join when I am closer to having the required funds. In the meantime, I'll keep learning and paying attention to people that are experienced to gain insight. I'm pretty excited to join not only for the knowledge and contacts, but because it seems like it would be fun as well. Just looking to save upmore and increase my earning power before I start throwing another $200/month at learning.
Before we started, I had read about 20 books on real estate...everything from Kieran Trass (loved it!) to Rich Dad, and everything in between.
We also took a slightly more cumbersome approach to getting started, but it has worked splendidly for us and many others. We could have bought one nice property with 20% down, but instead we bought 3 consecutive suited houses with low money down (and a condo with 25% down) and lived in one suite while we completely reno'd the other. (An interesting undertaking with 2 small children, but I wouldn't change a thing.)
We started with about $80k of our own money, but it took a surprisingly short time to be able to pull out every cent of that. We now have a healthy portfolio with no personal cash invested.
My point is that there are several ways to succeed in real estate. I know many people that consider our method and think we were crazy.
The best strategy for every person is to read and learn and formulate a strategy that is comfortable to you.
btw, we didn't do the reno work ourselves. There were certain parts of the job that my husand/business partner handled, and I planned all of the reno's, but most of the work was done by contractors.
I bought my first property after reading a book or two about RE - I thought I knew enough at that point. It was a 2 bedroom condo but it didn't cash flow. So much for thinking I knew what I was doing, eh! I sold that condo and then joined a local RE investment group, networked with successful RE investors, took RE courses and read lots of books! I bought two solid properties about a year and a half after I sold the condo because I felt confident that I had learned enough through experience and education to be successful. I was lucky that the condo didn't drain me financially.
Just based on my experience, I wouldn't recommend buying any properties until you gain sufficient knowledge and REIN is certainly the place to do just that.
